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Fashion

Suggestions for a Happy Shopping Season

By Kali Nichols – GCC Fashion Business Program Sophomore and Retail Employee

As a retail worker, I thought I could share some tips for an enjoyable Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping experience this year. Many college students are retail employees, balancing long retail work hours, family time, and preparation for class final exams or final project presentations. Customers are busy trying to balance jobs, family, and efficient shopping trips. These tips may help customers and worker have positive experiences in the store.

Some retailers let the employees pick which day (or both) they would like to work and the hours they are available; the retailers understand that their employees also want to spend time with their families for the holidays. Because of this, employees that you encounter at some stores are most likely to be in a good mood since they picked those hours and of course it’s the best time of the year. However, if you see an employee who looks like the day is really just getting the best of them, try to understand that maybe their hours were dictated to them and they are missing out on their family time to help you shop. As a customer, having empathy may allow you to see the employee in a different light.

If a price rings up incorrectly when you are cashing out, the best thing to do is politely ask the cashier to do a price check. The employee is not trying to charge you the highest price if it isn’t correct, in fact salespersons love helping you get the best possible deal! Please remain patient even though you may have to take a few extra minutes cashing out while the employee calls over the radio for a floor associate to complete the price check for you.

Most stores have trained their employees in regards to coupons, discounts and how to smoothly complete every transaction efficiently and effectively. But occasionally, a problem arises that a cashier or salesperson cannot solve. Managers are always available for assistance in cases like this; these situations also may require your patience.

Lastly, please be friendly overall. Black Friday and the holiday shopping season is crazy busy for employees and customers who are working and shopping retail. Remember the reason you are buying the gifts and how much job will be had while unwrapping them. Happy shopping this year!

On November 7th, Kento Takayama and Hannah Donnelley announced the theme of the 38th annual Genesee Community College Fashion Show: Limitless. The boundaries to this show are without end. Focusing on the four seasons, each scene will resemble a different aspect of each season. This theme offers more freedom and diversity than ever before, allowing for creativity and expression to drive the show on May 4th, 2019 at 7:00 pm at the Richard C. Call Arena on the Batavia Campus.

After this announcement, all fashion students took part in the annual color draping event. The practice of color draping was developed by Carol Jackson in her 1984 book, Color Me Beautiful. Each student was draped in different colored fabrics to determine the best suit for their skin tone, hair, and eye color. Personal color falls into 4 categories, cool toned winter or summer to warm toned spring or autumn. This is an admired event because it is personal and allows for students to put knowledge into practice. Students now know the colors that best compliment their unique personal color, and know which colors may help them look their best and feel their best. They will be well prepared in their best colors while at future interviews or when purchasing their power suit.

The color draping and fashion show theme reveal event is a much anticipated day for all students. This day was paramount for fashion students, it ignited excitement and determination for the work ahead. The theme reveal is the first public announcement and official start to fashion show preparation. In the following weeks, students will be presenting their fashion show scene concepts to secure one of the coveted scene coordinator positions for Limitless.

Follow our fashion show journey on this blog as we announce scene coordinators, scene themes and fashion show updates.

The past three days I’ve had the distinct pleasure of being the ‘chaperone’ for a terrific group of GCC Fashion Business students on their annual sojourn to NYC.

We toured FIT & LIM and I saw some amazing sites & sights! I got to know my colleagues, Professors Ehrhart & Taylor, and appreciate their dedication to their craft as well as their creativity. (I also was wowed by Busdriver Bob who maneuvered our vehicle through some tight spaces in mid-town Manhattan.)

Besides FIT & LIM, the places I saw for the first time that truly impressed me were The High Line, Ocula, Miss Saigon, and definitely, The 9/11 Memorial.

We were blessed with summertime weather & a full moon to boot!

#GCCinNYC was a blast in 2017 and well worth the blisters. I can’t wait to see what these students will do in April for the 37th Annual Fashion Show.

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Most of us are nearing the end of our journey here at Genesee Community College and we all have different plans of what we would like to do after we graduate. Some of us will be going to a different state for schooling, some of us will be going to New York City, and some of us are still not sure what lies ahead.

I am still not sure what my future holds, but what I do know now is how much each and every one of you has inspired me. I am so grateful that I decided to come to school here and join the Fashion Merchandising program and I am so thankful for all of the wonderful friendships I have made over the past 2 years and for all of the amazing opportunities that I have been given.

Not only have the students, my peers, inspired me, but my incredible professors, Professor Dudkowski and Professor Ehrhart, have also had an enormous impact on me. When I first came to college, I was very shy and didn’t speak up in class or talk to anyone, but these two professors were able to make me feel very comfortable talking in front of the class; they made me feel welcomed and like I belonged. They were always motivating me and everyone else to be the very best we can be and they taught all of us how to take charge.

It’s been 8 days since the fashion show and I can’t help but feel a tinge of sadness amongst the settling excitement we felt then. While this was an exciting moment for all of us, the thought that this is the last project we all worked on together saddens me. We have all been working extremely hard on this since the fall semester, and I have enjoyed every single minute. With that being said, we gave it 110% and had a record breaking show! Congratulations everyone.

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The 36th Annual Fashion Show: Elysium is less than a week away. I am excited and can’t wait to see how it works out!

I’m a scene coordinator for the scene Chloris. I major in Fashion Merchandising, but also have an interest for all things related to fashion, including designing, styling, and sewing. I decided to be a part of the 36th annual fashion show this year. When I worked as an intern last year for “Fashion Is…Diversification”, I saw how difficult it is to plan the scene and control all of the models, but at the same time, how amazing when we made it.

However, I’m not majoring in fashion design, so I thought the best way to join the fashion show was to borrow clothing from apparel stores and styling them. When I thought about that again, I finally decided on making the clothing by myself. Once I made that decision, my mind moved forward to create apparel by myself. I like challenges in whatever I want to do, even if it is difficult. My potential will be nothing without execution. So, this is really the first time in my life that I have made clothing. I didn’t know how to sew or make patterns at all, but this wonderful opportunity drives me to learn more about making clothing by myself. This would be definitely valuable for my career.

Basically, our outfits focus on femininity with sexiness. This spring summer trends are involved in sheer fabric so that we obtain the style of translucency as well.

Being an international student, I wanted to take in kimono textiles, which are used in traditional Japanese clothing. I like to mix different field of fashion, just like coordinate street style with high-end brand. I don’t want to show kimono as a traditional Japanese wear, and I want to show kimono as a part of modern fashion. Our fashion show is going to live stream internationally (link here), so I hope my family and friends will have fun watching our production.

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When you think of fashion you probably only think about the women’s wear and men’s wear, active and lounge. There is more to fashion than the basics. Terpsichore is one of the nine muses, the goddess of dance and chorus. I thought about Terpsichore because I love dancing. My inspiration for this scene came from my background of dancing. I have danced 11 years of my life in a dance studio in my hometown. I then continued dancing in college on the dance team for the past 2 years now. Seeing how I could choose any god or goddess, I thought if there was a god or goddess of dance. Soon enough I found there was a goddess of dance.

If you look into the fashion behind a recital or a team routine, there is more to it than you think. There are millions of different outfits for dancers, from lyrical to jazz, tap to ballet, contemporary to pointe, and so much more. There is also a lot of work put into the choreography the dancers will be performing. When learning a routine, it takes several months; this includes learning the dance, putting the dancers into spots, and then finally perfecting the routine so it is ready for either a competition, recital, or festival. I have been in over 15 dance recitals in my lifetime. The number of hours spent in the studio is more than you could imagine.

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In Greek mythology, there is the tale of Chloris, goddess of flowers and nature, and the nymph of spring. Chloris was in the forest one day when she stumbled upon the lifeless body of woodland nymph. Saddened by the innocent creature’s fate, she decided to breathe life anew and reached out to the other gods to transform the nymph’s body into a flower.

To this, Aphrodite would add beauty, and Dionysus gave her nectar for a sweet-smelling fragrance. The three Graces gave the blossom the gifts of charm, joy, and splendor. All agreed it was the most spectacular of flowers. Chloris also represents beauty, sexuality, love, and spring, and her symbols are all flowers. This flowering pertains to the human spirit and also the appreciation of beauty in the body.

For this year’s fashion show, my friend Momoka Fukatsu and I are working on the scene together based on Chloris. I make clothing of my own for the scene; however I don’t have much experience with making a patterns and sewing. It is really difficult to do that, but I am gaining valuable experience for my life. It has been my dream to design and make garments. This opportunity caused me to have an increased interest in fashion design, and my love of fashion grew. This scene pursues ultimate femininity and utilizes the various textiles and added details to the garment. The inspiration is the element of garments with elegance and sexiness based on 1960’s style including ruffles, flowers, and ribbons. I’m careful in selecting the fabrics for clothing, and use tulles, velvet, lace, satin and Japanese kimono textile.

It’s my first time doing a scene and it has been difficult, although I’m really happy to have this opportunity. Through it, I think that I have acquired and developed various knowledge and skills, including producing a fashion show, sewing skills, communication skills, and cooperation skills. I will be able to use this experience in the future in just about all aspects of my life. I try to do my best in order to produce a wonderful show and hope many people will come to the show.